


A Book, The Moonlight, And A Lantern

by fightforyourwrite



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: 5 year old Historia, Books, Children, Gen, Grandparents & Grandchildren, POV First Person, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 19:32:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12394707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fightforyourwrite/pseuds/fightforyourwrite
Summary: In the pursuit of a book in the middle of the night, the very young and very small Historia Reiss runs into someone.





	A Book, The Moonlight, And A Lantern

**Author's Note:**

> A part of me likes to write Historia having a slightly pleasant relationship with her Grandfather, even in the canonverse. Not everything in this girl's life has to be shitty.

I can’t make myself fall asleep. It’s late at night, but I’m still very awake. 

This is weird. I worked hard on the farm all day, but it wasn’t hard enough because I’m not tired right now. 

I stay awake in bed and stare up at the ceiling. 

Because I’m young and my grandparents are old, I have to go to sleep earlier than them. Grandpa says that I’m small and that’s why I have to rest more. I’m good at farm work like he is, but I’m not strong enough to handle as much as him yet. So I have to rest more so I can become strong enough. 

But it’s good to go to bed earlier sometimes. When I’m in bed, I can sleep, and when I’m asleep, I can dream, and dreams are nice to me. 

Dreams are different from the real world. My dreams don’t make a lot of sense to me, but I like them still. They take me away from home sometimes and it’s nice to be in a place that isn’t the farm. 

I’m not allowed to leave the farm at all. Grandpa and Grandma’s orders. They say that I’m not supposed to be out in this world and that I’m better off staying with them. I guess they need an extra hand around and farm and that’s why they keep me around. 

It feels like a long time since Grandpa tucked me in. Two, three, four, maybe even a million hours. 

I still can’t sleep. I start to toss and turn in bed but I’m still not sleepy. 

I don’t like this. I hate it. I’m so bored. 

I turn onto my stomach and push my head into my pillow. It’s soft, but I don’t care. The softness isn’t comfortable enough right now. It needs to be comfortabler so I can finally sleep.

If I don’t sleep, I can’t wake up in the morning and help Grandpa and Grandma on the farm. 

I’m tired of not sleeping. This is stupid and boring. I need something to do before I finally get sleeping. This feels like a giant waste of time. 

I get up from bed and move until I’m on the floor. I know what I want to do. I can read until I get tired enough, but I left my favourite book downstairs in the kitchen. I was reading it during lunch time. I left it there because right after the meal because Grandpa needed me to help with the chickens. 

I walk from my bed to the door. I open it very slowly so it doesn’t make a lot of noise.

Then I go out into the hallway. Grandpa and Grandma’s room is right across from mine. Then there’s the bathroom where Grandma helps me bathe. Then down the hall is Mother’s bedroom, but I’m not allowed to go in there because she doesn’t like to be disturbed.

Even when Mother leaves the farm at night, I’m still not allowed to go in. I wonder why. What does Mother have in there? 

I have to go down the staircase in order to get my book. The staircase creaks, but like the door, if I go slowly, no one will hear me heading down. Plus I’m very small, that helps me not make noise whenever I move. 

It’s hard to see when it’s night, but the moonlight helps me see. I look out the window and see it shine in the black air. 

It takes a while for me to get to the bottom. When I get there, I walk from the stairs to the kitchen. I get on the tips of my toes to look on the counters. It’s hard for me to see anything in this house because I’m very short. I just turned five last month and I’m still too short to do anything useful. 

It sucks being short. I wish I was bigger. 

If I was more bigger, then maybe I’d be strong enough to leave the farm on my own. Grandpa and Grandma wouldn’t have to worry about me being on my own, because I’d be strong enough to take care of myself. 

I find my book near the sink where Grandma and I wash dishes. I have to jump a little bit to grab it. It takes a few jumps and hops but soon I get it into my grip. 

I grin because now I can go back to my room, read my book, and then finally I’ll be able to go to sleep. 

With my feet on the floor, I turn around and prepare to sneak back into my room. 

But when I do that, I see a large figure standing in front of me, waiting for me after I turn around. 

I look up and see a pair of dark eyes staring down at me. 

My first reaction is to scream. 

_**“AHHHH-”** _

The person standing in front of my reaches their hand forward and places it on my mouth to shush me. It doesn’t work because I keep screaming, but then the person speaks and I recognize their voice. 

“Shhhhhh!!!! Historia, shhhhh!!! Quiet down, please?” 

I know that voice. It’s just Grandpa. 

So I stop screaming and he takes his hand off my face. 

Grandpa leans down to me on his knees, “It’s late, what are you doing down here?” 

“I couldn’t sleep, Grandpa,” I tell him. I hold up my book to his face, “I left my book down here and I wanted to read it in my room.” 

“Oh,” Grandpa says. He nods his head and stands up straight, “Hm…” 

Grandpa’s voice is very low and gruff. It’s probably a sign that he’s very old. 

“I left my room, am I in trouble?” I ask Grandpa. 

Grandpa shakes his head, “No, you aren’t.” 

That’s good. The last thing I want to do now is get in trouble with someone. 

“But we better get you to bed, we’ve got a long day tomorrow,” Grandpa says. He takes my hand and tugs me so I walk with him. “Come on.” 

“Long day?” I ask. “What are we gonna do tomorrow?” 

“Shoeing the horses, it takes a while to do all of them,” Grandpa explains. 

“You got me to help you, Grandpa,” I remind him. “Maybe it won’t take that long if I’m around.”

“It might, but you’re still very small, Historia,” Grandpa tells me. We walk through the kitchen and start going up the stairs. Each steps creaks loudly. “I don’t think you’re ready to be handling a hammer yet.” 

I huff at him. 

“You’re always reminding me how small I am,” I say to Grandpa. “But you keep forgetting how helpful I am. I’m helpful, aren’t I, Grandpa? Am I? I turned five last month, I can do so much more now than I could before.” 

Grandpa hums, “Hm… well, it’s always good to have an extra pair of hands around here, especially now that your mother’s stopped working altogether…” 

“Why doesn’t Mother work, Grandpa?” I ask him. “All she does is sit all day and read books. Is working just harder for her than it is for us?”

Now I’m curious. Mother is bigger than me, but all she does is read and then go out at night. She could use her bigness to help Grandpa out. 

And Grandma mentioned something about Grandpa having a bad back. It’s what happens when you get very old. It sounds like Grandpa needs all the help he can get. 

We’re at the top of the stairs now. We walk to my room but Grandpa doesn’t answer yet. He’s thinking really hard about what I asked him. 

Did I ask a bad question? Or did I ask too smart of a question that Grandpa can’t answer it? 

Grandpa leads me to my room and he opens the door. I have my book still clutched in my hand. The room the very dark, how do I read it in here? The moonlight’s not strong enough to help me. I don’t think I thought this through. 

“Your mother has a lot of other things to do, Historia,” Grandpa soon says to me. He takes me to my bed where he lifts me up and places me on it. “Here, I’ll get you some light.” 

Grandpa leaves the room for a quick moment. Then he comes back and he has a lantern in his hand. 

“This oughta help out,” Grandpa says. “Just be careful, okay?” 

“I know how these lanterns work, Grandpa,” I tell him. He puts the lantern on the drawer beside my bed and now I have enough light to see the pages of my book. “Thank you, Grandpa.”

“Good night, Historia,” Grandpa says. He reaches over and squeezes my hand. It’s like a hug but smaller. I think I like it. 

Grandpa then lets go of my hand and walks away. 

“Can you stay and read with me?” I ask Grandpa. 

He stops walking. He’s halfway to the door, but he turns around to look at me. He looks sad for some reason. Why is he so sad?

Grandpa then shakes his head and says, “No. I’m sorry, I can’t.” 

“But you’d help me out like I help you,” I explain to him. “There are some words that I still can’t read yet.” 

Again, Grandpa shakes his head, “I really can’t, Historia. Good night.” 

I sigh because there’s no way I can convince Grandpa otherwise. “Okay then… good night, Grandpa.” 

Then he leaves. He closes the door and then I’m alone in my room with a book, the moonlight, and a lantern. 


End file.
